But before opening this, Sarget de Gruard Larose 2004, the second wine of Gruard Larose, I'd had a glass of the Wine Society's Catena Cabernet Sauvignon for about £11 per bottle.

What a stark contrast, The Catena was really nothing special, despite the Wine Society hype. Big alcholic New World fruit, not much density, little complexity and a relatively disappointing length of finish given how they have sold this wine on their website.

Then we tried this Sarget de Gruard Larose 2004, which I bought in Carrefour in Bordeaux in October last year. I don't recall what I paid for it, perhaps 20 Euros.

Wow, what a difference. This 2004 is on the cusp of greatness, for the price and the year that is.

It's say £9 more than the Catena mentioned above, but a world away in difference. Well worth the extra £9, I would argue.

You can decant it for an hour or two, with an aerator (do they make a difference? I don't know) and just sit and breathe in the nose in a big Bordeaux glass for half an hour.

I didn't take a sip for ten minutes.

What a gorgeous nose of ripe cassis black fruit with a hint of mustiness/forest floor/age, and perhaps lead pencil shavings (first time I have picked that up in wine).

The finish will improve I think, over the next five years or so. At nine years old, it is still rather young. It is still slightly tannic but I am sure those will even out in the next few years. One to keep, and to drink a bottle of occasionally to see how it is maturing.

(I just noticed that I'd reviewed this wine before, here. I thought I had, but couldn't find it when I searched for it on the blog, but here it is. Interesting to note I had picked up slightly different notes last time.)

Is it worth it? Depends on how much you like Port. I wouldn't pay that. But I am lucky enough to share this bottle with six others.

They say Wine Spectator gives it 100 points.

As we all know, the 100 point system is increasingly, and rightfully under scrutiny.

But this is damn fine Port I must say. As a Port amateur I can say it has a huge, alcoholic nose with gloriously complex and deep red fruit. It's big, smooth, supremely elegant and has without doubt, the best finish of a port I've known. Buy some. If you like top port, I imagine this is what it feels like.

"In a word, superb. It's full-bodied, moderately sweet and incredibly
tannic, but there's amazing finesse and refinement to the texture, not
to mention fabulous, concentrated aromas of raspberries, violets and
other flowers. Perhaps the greatest Taylor ever, it's better than either
the '92 or the '70, though it's very like the '70 in structure."

I wouldn't go as far as Parker, who gave it 90
points and said "The Côtes du Rhône les Trois Soeurs offers a delicious
mouthful of wine for a song. Its dense plum color is accompanied by notes of
white chocolate, crushed berry fruit, earth and licorice...enormously satisfying."

But for the price, it's a winner. I
would say though, that for just over £10, this option is
a better one.

This wine is
beautifully balanced. Great acidity, it's full flavoured and needs food.

I was able to buy it En
primeur and so picked up a case for around £6-7 per bottle. It's now hard to
find, although FromVineYardsDirect.com has the 2011, I wonder if it is quite as
good. If you can find the 2010, it's great value drinking. I wish I'd bought a
second case.

"A taste
of fresh, ripe, unadorned and unoaked perfumed fruit which ripens so
well on Chile's ungrafted vines. Elegant and full of charm. From the
Rothschild estate".

It's superbly delicious, fresh, smooth and wonderfully structured, particularly for the price. The 2009 and the 2010, if you can still buy them, are both also fabulous. I have also had the 2007 which is stunning. The 2011 is reviewed here by this blog.

Monday, 7 January 2013

"Complexity. The single greatest standard used in
assessing the quality of a wine is complexity. The more times you can
return to a glass of wine and find something different in it—in the
bouquet, in the taste—the more complex the wine. The very greatest wines
are not so much overpowering as they are seemingly limitless.

Texture. This is a feature of wine that too often is
overlooked. Yet pay attention to texture, as it may be the most
important "hidden" feature of wine quality. This is especially true with
white wines; one of the "giveaways" to quality (and potential
longevity) in dry white wines is revealed by texture.

Midpalate Density. Every taster has his or her go-to
feature. For some it's bouquet. For others it's a wine's finish,
whether it's short or long, intense or faint. For me, it's midpalate
density.

The midpalate feature is sometimes hard for tasters to recognize. The
easiest way to grasp the notion is to imagine a candy with a hard,
dense center. You suck on the candy and figure that it's soon to be
gone. Then you reach that hard, dense center and you discover that
there's a lot more yet to come. Voilà! Midpalate density.

Proportion. The element of proportion is easily
grasped. A wine, like an attractive person, should be reasonably
proportionate. It shouldn't finish "short." You should have a sense of
the wine's flavors being metered out to you in roughly equal amounts and
time spans: the scent, the beginning taste, the midpalate and,
critically, the finish.

Finesse. The feature of finesse is a favorite of
mine. It's something I look for almost obsessively. Finesse is how the
flavors of a wine are delivered. Imagine a lay-up in basketball where
the player drives toward the basket, gracefully leaps up and the ball
rolls off his fingertips and falls effortlessly into the net. That's
finesse.

Balance. The concept of balance means different
things to different tasters. It's one of those classic
you-know-it-when-you-see-it qualities. At its most basic, balance refers
to an equilibrium created by roughly equal amounts of “fruitiness” and
acidity in wine (and sweetness in a sweet wine)."

I kind of know what he means here. I'm not sure I grasp all of it just yet, but it's best list I've seen to date

Friday, 4 January 2013

According to my learned friends who know wine, unlike me, Château d'Yquem is the world's best wine.

I'm not sure who decided that, and I am sure there are some who would disagree.

I wouldn't know, as I haven't tasted its best.

On a recent trip to Bordeaux I was lucky enough to pay the place a visit.

Despite the somewhat gloomy October weather, which ruined the harvest to the point that for the first time in 20 years, Château d'Yquem will make no wine from the 2012 harvest, the place still takes your breath away. Like Chateau Margaux and Pichon Baron, it simply does not look real.

A fairytale setting. We arrived during part of the harvest, which you can see below being brought in.

Stunning, even in October's gloom

We tasted a few grapes from the fields, without realising we might be some of the few that did in 2012.

We tasted the 2006, and I can't recall much about what it was like I'm afraid, and I hang my head in shame.

In my defence, a visit just before to Haut-Bailly had probably overwhelmed my humble palate.

I remember it was of course very very good, but I am told 2006 was not the best year for Sauternes, which is probably why freeloading visitors like us were given it. I'd have done the same.

This is not of course to cast aspersions on the excellent hospitality we were shown, merely to indicate that like Wayne in Wayne's world, we were unworthy (of the good stuff)

Here's a bit about it from Wikipedia, and a few more pictures are below:

"Fresh" from the fields

"The vineyard has 126 hectares (310 acres) in the Sauternes appellation, though only 100 hectares (250 acres) are in production at any time. Each year, vines from two to three hectares are grubbed up and left fallow for a year. Since grapes from newly planted vines are not worthy of the chateau name for five to seven years, about 20 hectares are held in reserve each year. The vines consist of 80% Sémillon and 20% Sauvignon blanc, though the latter's vigour implies the proportions are more nearly equal in the final wine.

Harvesting is carefully timed, and on average six tries through the vineyard are undertaken each year to ensure that only the botrytized grapes are selected. The yield averages nine hectolitres per hectare (2.5 acres), compared to the usual twelve to twenty hectolitres per hectare in Sauternes. The grapes are pressed three times and transferred to oak barrels for maturation over a period of about three years.

On average, 65,000 bottles are produced each year. In a poor vintage, the entire crop is deemed unworthy of bearing the Château's name; this happened nine times in the 20th century: 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974, and 1992 and in the 21st century one time: 2012."

Rieussec 2001, which scores between 95 and 100 points (see here) is also amazing.

Parker's Wine Advocate apparently says "A monumental effort, the 2001 Rieussec boasts a light to
medium gold color in addition to a fabulous perfume of honeysuckle,
smoky oak, caramelized tropical fruits, creme brulee, and Grand Marnier.
The wine is massive and full-bodied yet neither over the top nor heavy
because of good acidity. With intense botrytis as well as a 70-75-second
finish, this amazing Sauternes will be its apogee between 2010-2035."

It's a truly wonderful drop. On balance I preferred the more subtle Climens. But that is perhaps splitting hairs.

It may also have been that my palate was somewhat affected by the all the Calon Segur we had tasted just before it, reviewed here in a recent vertical tasting.

Working today in deepest Suffolk, UK, I found a wonderful little wine shop, with the help of a friend.

The owner has some absolute gems on his shelves.

His shop is called Wattisfield Wines in a lovely village called Walsham Le Willows.

One these gems is this Lalande D'Auvion Medoc 2001.

At £13 this is a steal.

Mature, aged claret that opened up beautifully after an hour.

Critics seem to score it in the late 80's. For value and taste, it's fabulous.

The reviews, as always, seem to pick up things that I could never taste. But I can tell you it's delicious. I can't swear that: "This tawny-hued wine is beginning to reveal secondary aromatics of smoky bacon, caramel, leather and earth" but for under £15, it is superb.

The grapes are harvested mechanically, according to the research I've done. But for the price you can't expect them individually caressed by an experienced picker.

This is what I love about learning about wine. You can find hidden gems in the least expected places, such as Walsham Le Willows. Here's where you can buy it. For value, it's hard to beat.

Their description of it's "power, boldness and rustic red-berry charm" is right on the money.2010 was of course an outstanding year for most Rhone wines. I've not had a bad one yet, and have reviewed a few others. Given it now seems to be hard to get at the price, this wine is probably a decent alternative. I had a case of it last year and it's wonderfully balanced. Not for the faint-hearted though.

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About Me

I'm Toby Webb, founder of Innovation Forum, a sustainability focused research, publishing and events business. I'm also a lecturer on Corporate Responsibility at Kings College London and at Birkbeck, University of London. Tobias DOT Webb AT innovation-forum.co.uk